Dresser Redo – Dun, dun, dun!

Posted on: Thursday, April 24, 2014

We have had this awful entertainment center in the living room for far too many years now.

Note the old school Target build your own entertainment system - dorm room style behind the to die for baseball player.

I had full, strong, sincere intentions to do something about it…. oh, circa 2011?

It wasn’t until my girlfriend, Stephanie, transformed an old dresser into the center piece of her living room that I got my butt in gear.

So gorgeous, right? Don’t stare too long! Mine isn’t as good.

In keeping with my goal to stay transparent around here, seeing hers did not make me move any faster.. it really just aroused some coveting on my end for a few months with a few minutes of I don’t have social media and I’m bored Craigs List browsing here and there.

And then I came across this. I thought I saw potential – Craig turned tilted his head to the side trying to see what I saw. He isn’t known for his creative vision. I sent the picture to Stephanie seeking her approval and once she said she loved, I was off to Deland to pick her up.

I have distressed some new and old pieces of furniture so I feel like I am pretty comfortable with the process. This time around, I wanted to try my hand at the highly acclaimed Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and since there is a fun vintage market here in town that sells it I loaded Corbin up and without sampling any colors or any true direction on what look I was going for, I grabbed a can of the Old Ochre and clear wax and we were off.

The biggest appeal about Annie Sloan’s product is that there is literally no prep work. For all previous furniture redo’s I have done there is days of sanding, painting, sanding, painting, staining, sanding and then a clear coat. With this chalk paint, there is no sanding before hand. This dresser had a pretty heavy varnish on it that I was worried about but this stuff truly is a dream. A very, very expensive dream.

I initially did one coat of the chalk paint and then did see some stroke marks underneath – her tutorials all said to do two coats- but I wanted to see if I could squeeze by with just one. I did a second coat on a drawer front and after letting it dry, realized that it had a much richer look to it. Next, I did an application of the clear wax. I knew I wanted an antiqued, distressed look but instead of spending $27 on a can of dark wax, I was going to just use some stains and antiquing glazes I had in the garage… when the time came to start distressing, I got nervous about mixing products and Stephanie so graciously let me borrow her dark wax to play with.

After the initial coat of the chalk paint.

One coat of the Old Ochre followed by clear and dark wax- I liked it, but it didn’t look quite as good as this one did with two coats-

After doing a coat of dark wax, buffing, and some light sanding, I buffed over a few spots with the clear wax and my finish was done.

I had Craig remove two of the drawer fronts and then we were able to salvage the frames from the face of the drawers so that I could use to frame the holes that we are using to store our cable box and playstation.

I kept all original hardware and love the way that they came out with the gold peeking through.

Not too shabby for a $30 Craigs List find- I just love breathing new life into old things and giving them a second chance to shine.

1 comment :

My name is Shayna. On this blog, you will find some of our daily happenings as I navigate through my role as a wife and mama. I will also share some of the stories of my heart as well as some of the lessons I have learned along my journey.
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